On the evening of the 24th October Steve Pauline Sharon and I attended the Farnworth Fire Station 30th anniversary function. Steve had been invited and he really wanted to attend. This was another important step for Steve in his journey. The last time he was on a fire station was his last night on full operational duty on the night of the 23rd June 2008. We all quickly realised that my concern for Steve going back to a fire station was not needed. He was surrounded by friends from all sections of the job and was back laughing and talking as if he had never been away. We all had a great time and as usual the Fire fighters at Farnworth Fire Station put on a fantastic night. Steve listened to Kylie Minogue who sang live on stage and afterwards had a chat with her in the bar. Lucky bloke. Kylie's real name is Clare but when Clare is on stage she has a fantastic Kylie sound.

Steve looked great and felt comfortable being back amongst the Fire Service Family. Many people stood with him and said some really good words of support. He was on his usual Guinness and he was able to stand at the bar and mix in with everyone. We just stood back and let him get on with it.

When Steve was ready to leave we made our way out of the back door while we were there the on duty watch of fire fighters wished him well and I introduced him to a probationer Fire fighter from Salford Borough. Steve shook the probationers hand and told her that she was in a great job, wished her well with her career and told her with a smile on his face not to be put off doing the job when she looked at him (typical Steve humour). When we passed the fire appliances Steve shouted to Pauline as he opened a fire appliance door that he was getting on the big red.

A great night and another step forward for our Steve.

The next part of this blog I write with a great sense of pride and admiration for Steve. Last night we had a chat about this blog and Steve has asked if he can start writing the it himself. He has his computer set up now and his ready to go.

I hope I have done justice in my writing to Steve's recovery and I hope that somewhere along the way I have given people inspiration in writing about how committed Steve has been to his recovery and to Pauline and his wider family and friends. To each and everyone one of you I say thank you for reading and sincere thanks for all the kind words of encouragement about my blog entries. Without all of you we would have found the last 16 months much harder to deal with. Steve has amazing family and friends and he can go forward knowing how much support he has. I am privileged to be part of all that.

So now I hand over the reins to the big fella fondly known as Biff.

Gaz Dewar has left the blog.

A couple of weeks has gone by from my last blog update and Steve has been involved in some very positive activities both with his own personal recovery and being part of a fantastic evening at the Tower FM Radio Awards held at the Pennine suit, Last drop village.

Steve's left arm is extending more now which is a good sign. The arm has extended to a point where now the skin around this area may have to be cut and re sown to allow the arm to move more. Steve sees this as a necessary part of this area getting better and the more the arm extends the nearer the operations on his left hand will come. He will soon visit the podiatrist again to have a re-assessment of his walking with the opportunity to have his right ankle foot and leg properly assessed via a computer programme. This hopefully will allow more development in these parts of his body. Both his surgical team and his own GP has recommended this type of investigation and assessment to take Steve forward with his recovery.

On the 16th October Steve was invited by the local Bolton Radio Station Tower FM to attend their awards ceremony at the Last Drop Village in Bolton. The awards are to celebrate local peoples achievements and work in their communities. Steve was asked to present the Hero's Hero award on the night and it was this award along with the local Hero award which Steve won last year but was in Hospital so could not collect these awards himself. Instead his Watch ( Green Watch Bolton Central) went on the night and accepted these awards for him. According to good information they all had a great time.

The awards are a very posh affair with ladies in gowns and Gents in DJ's. Pauline Sharon and I were very pleased to be asked to accompany Steve and be part of this special evening. The Tower FM people were very nice and we sat at the table with a number of Tower radio presenters and production managers. During the course of the evening people came and spoke to Steve and said some very nice things to him. It was great for the 3 of us who was with him to see that level of concern and how nice and thoughtful people can be. Special Thanks must go to Sophie and Emma from Tower FM. They were brilliant with us on the night and looked after Steve both before and when he went onto the stage to present the award.

Steve was really pleased to able to present the award and saw it has a great honour. When it came the time to present the Hero's Hero award at the end of the awards night Steve was introduced before he stood up to get on Stage by Emma Wasden a presenter at Tower FM. Emma spoke about Steve and they played the intro from last years award which introduced Steve as the winner of the Hero's Hero award for 2008. When this finished Steve stood up to go on stage. The room exploded into raptures of applause for him and then everyone in the room stood applauding Steve while he made his way onto the Stage. This once again was a fantastic sight to see and brought tears to the eyes of Pauline and Sharon. We know as a family where Steve had come from and the dark days which he had been through and to see him looking smart in his Fire Service Uniform making his way onto the stage was emotional. Once on stage Emma was great with Steve. Emma spoke to him and mentioned how modest he was about everything. Steve told Emma how honoured he was to present the award to whoever was going to be awarded with it. Emma went on then to announce the winner who was Marjorie Simms. A very deserving winner. Marjorie came up onto the stage and Steve presented her with the glass ware which this very heroic lady kindly accepted. Lots of pictures were taken and Steve spoke to Marjorie about how deserving she was to win the award. Following the awards we all said our thank you's and good byes.

Steve still gets tired and being involved in such an exciting and dynamic evening wore him out. He also knows I dance like a Dad and didn't want me to cause any injuries on the dance floor. On the way out of the venue Steve was again spoken to by many people who offered words of support. He was interviewed on the night by Sophie from Tower and we listened to it afterwards on the Tower FM Radio show. It was a fantastic night and once again thank you to all at Tower FM for the invite.

Gary

The visits to Wythenshawe Hospital continue for Steve. He has recently been to see the Hand Specialist and discussed what the future holds for further surgeries to both his hands. The skin grafts continue to heal and Steve continues to work on maintaining some mobility of what remains of his fingers and thumbs. The longer term future will see Steve undergoing surgery to his thumbs to have extensions put on them to allow him to grip better between his thumbs and first fingers. This surgery will be some time off yet as Steve still has to gain more mobility in his left arm. This is to do with straightening the arm rather than bending it towards his body. The arm has straightened more but he still needs to do more on this area to allow for the surgery on his left hand to take place.

Steve’s mobility on his legs is still improving he his steadier now on his feet despite difficulty with his right ankle and foot he can walk around without to much support. Although he still finds it painful and difficult to walk even short distances when he is wearing no shoes.

He continues with the physio which involves a lot of intense stretching of his left arm and manipulation of the left wrist and he is still using his step machine and other mobility equipment he has in the house for work on his lower body, and as I always say he his still pushing on with his recovery.

Gary.